Good morning, TexMessagers! Do you think Sen. Ted Cruz is ready to run for president?

TEXclusive

Fresh off his talking tour of Iowa and the Midwest, Sen. Ted Cruz soaked up the spotlight in Denver this weekend and took the No. 1 spot in one of the straw polls of the 2014 election season.

The junior senator from Texas earned multiple standing ovations at the Western Conservative Summit on Saturday when he called for the end of the embattled Internal Revenue Service and urged lawmakers to defund “Obamacare.”

He revealed a Senate Republican campaign against the Obama administration’s health care overhaul, called “Don’t Fund It,” which he launched with Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah. Cruz has fiercely opposed “Obamacare” since he entered office seven months ago, and is one of the leading lawmakers trying to block its implementation next year.

The Tea Party duo launched a website that targets Republican senators who have not pledged to oppose 2014 funding – Sens. John McCain of Arizona, Richard Burr of South Carolina, and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma.

A poll taken during the three-day summit showed the Texas senator far ahead of other potential 2016 candidates. Forty-five percent of attendees chose Cruz, compared to the event’s keynote speaker, Gov. Scott Walker, who came in second place with 13 percent.

During the 2011 summit’s poll before the 2012 election, restaurant executive Herman Cain took the lead.

Former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee also spoke this weekend in Denver, along with former Rep. Allen West, who closed out the conference.

Cruz has repeatedly denied a presidential bid, even after traveling to Iowa, one of the first states to hold a primary in 2014 with another possible contender, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.

“At this point, 100 percent of my focus is on the U.S. Senate. And the reason is simple: The Senate’s the battlefield. The Senate is where these fights are being fought,” Cruz told reporters after the event. “So I’m devoting my time, No. 1, to trying to stand up for free-market principles and the Constitution.”

Cruz, Paul and Lee will also speak at a sold-out event Wednesday hosted by the Young Americans for Liberty organization.

“Well, if anyone knows the risks of Cuba, it should be our favorite Cuban-Canadian senator.”

Today:

? The Senate will debate the Transportation-Housing and Urban Development Appropriations bill.

? The House is not in session

Tomorrow and beyond:

? July 31 The House Committee on the Budget will hold a hearing detailing a progress report on the war on poverty.

Today in Texas History:

On this date in 1988, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation selected NCNB, a regional bank based in Charlotte, N.C., to lead the bailout of the First Republic Bank Corporation and its 40 subsidiary banks in Dallas. More>>>